Before the pandemic started I was a primary school teacher in a private international school. One month after the pandemic, the management was unable to continue operations and decided to shut down the school.

Not only to myself due to the pandemic but many private schools in Sri Lanka were forced to close their operations impacting many teachers’ jobs and income. Making things much worse, after I lost my job within a week my husband’s workplace also decided to lay off their staff because they were unable to gain income to manage the current staff in the company.

My entire family’s income sources were gone within one week! We started to see this as a curse in the beginning but with time we saw it as a blessing. We were having more time to spend with the ones we love and understood the uncertainty of life and how to live with COVID-19.

With time we both started our own small business (Book Store) and it is enough to keep food on our plates. Knowing the uncertainty of life is one thing, but what will be the future of our children and their education? For some people, the pandemic is a curse and for some others, it is a blessing. For a middle-class family like ours, it is a bit of both.

We wish things can be normal like before the pandemic but the truth is it will not be the same again. We need to get used to the new normal and find a way to keep up with it. I’m Kokila S. mother of two kids. I can’t let my family down. I can’t let my children’s future go down due to this pandemic. I will come back stronger and better than ever before.